Scorecard Research Beacon
Search Icon
November 7, 2019

2020 Met Gala theme revealed

WATCH: Our Met Gala roundup

The theme for the super bowl of fashion has just been revealed!

Editor's Picks

Behold, the 2020 Met Gala: "About Time: Fashion and Duration."

The announcement was made Thursday by The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute and host of the annual blockbuster ball.

View this post on Instagram

The Costume Institute’s spring 2020 exhibition will be “About Time: Fashion and Duration” opening May 7, 2020 with #MetGala on May 4. The exhibition will trace fashion from 1870 to today along a disruptive timeline, as part of @metmuseum’s 150th anniversary celebration. Employing philosopher Henri Bergson’s concept of la durée—time that flows, accumulates, and is indivisible—the show will explore how clothes generate temporal associations that conflate the past, present, and future. The concept will also be examined through the writings of Virginia Woolf, who will serve as the “ghost narrator” of the exhibition. To learn more, clink the link in bio. This exhibition is made possible by @louisvuitton. Additional support is provided by @condenast. // 📷: Surreal, David Bailey (British, born 1938), 1980; Photo © David Bailey #MetAboutTime #VirginiaWoolf #DavidBailey

A post shared by The Costume Institute (@metcostumeinstitute) on

Staying true to theme, "the Costume Institute’s spring exhibition will showcase a century-and-a-half of fashion history culled from its archive and presented along a 'disruptive' timeline," according to Vogue.

The gala, hosted at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, also known as, The Met, in New York City, is the formal unveiling and opening night of the Costume Institute's spring exhibition, which shares in concept and theme.

PHOTO: Katy Perry attends the 2019 Met Gala Celebrating Camp: Notes on Fashion at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, May 6, 2019 in New York City.
Neilson Barnard/Getty Images
Katy Perry attends the 2019 Met Gala Celebrating Camp: Notes on Fashion at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, May 6, 2019 in New York City.
PHOTO: Kim Kardashian West and Kanye West attend the 2019 Met Gala Celebrating Camp: Notes on Fashion at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, May 6, 2019, in New York City.
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum
Kim Kardashian West and Kanye West attend the 2019 Met Gala Celebrating Camp: Notes on Fashion at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, May 6, 2019, in New York City.
PHOTO: Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas attend the 2019 Met Gala Celebrating Camp: Notes on Fashion at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, May 6, 2019, in New York City.
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum
Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas attend the 2019 Met Gala Celebrating Camp: Notes on Fashion at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, May 6, 2019, in New York City.
PHOTO: Cardi B attends the 2019 Met Gala Celebrating Camp: Notes on Fashion at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, May 6, 2019, in New York City.
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum
Cardi B attends the 2019 Met Gala Celebrating Camp: Notes on Fashion at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, May 6, 2019, in New York City.

“It’s a reimagining of fashion history that’s fragmented, discontinuous, and heterogeneous," says Andrew Bolton, curator in charge of the Costume Institute.

The purpose behind "About Time: Fashion and Duration" will be to get us to think differently about fashion's history -- Bolton is dividing 160 women’s garments into two sections or "timescales."

Vogue's Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour continues to preside as chairperson of the gala.

Meryl Streep, Emma Stone, Nicolas Ghesquière and Lin-Manuel Miranda have been announced to join as co-chairs.

PHOTO: Meryl Streep, Nicolas Ghesquiere, Emma Stone and Lin-Manuel Miranda are the Met Gala 2020 co-chairs.
Getty Images
Meryl Streep, Nicolas Ghesquiere, Emma Stone and Lin-Manuel Miranda are the Met Gala 2020 co-chairs.

The 2020 gala, which is always held on the first Monday of May, also marks the 150th anniversary of The Met, so we can expect May 4 next year to be especially unforgettable.

"About Time: Fashion and Duration" will be on exhibit at The Met beginning May 7 through Sept. 7, 2020.